This invention is related to optical devices and more particularly to an optical device having an optical array interface.
With the continued miniaturization of optical and optoelectronic components such as lasers and detectors, comes the ability to create dense optical and optoelectronic components on smaller substrates. This technology is currently being utilized to create smaller optoelectronic components such as transmitters, receivers, and transceivers having light source and detector devices for transmitting and receiving fiber optic signals. The transmitters, receivers and, transceivers typically have an electrical interface for passing electrical signals corresponding to the optical signals transmitted and received. As density is increased, the optical interconnection and alignment presents a problem in that, instead of aligning a single transmit fiber and a single receive fiber at the optical interface, it is necessary to align a plurality of fibers at the optical interface.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,849 shows a pair of optical connectors forming the optical interface of an optoelectronic device. Each of these optical connectors is adapted to receive a single fiber. A connector guide is provided and includes an apertured body for receiving a guide pin to position, align, or polarize a mating connector. A problem exists with this design in that the apertured bodies are separate from the optoelectronic component and therefore are only roughly aligned to the optical connectors by their position on the mounting structure or circuit board. Since the optical interface includes only two relatively large optical connectors each having a single fiber, a rough alignment is sufficient to establish a reliable optical interconnection. This design however would not be preferred for a relatively small arrayed optical interface. Because the rough alignment provided would not be precise enough to establish reliable optical interconnections in the array.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,091,991 shows an optical fiber connector with an alignment feature. This patent shows a transmitter and/or a receiver device having a pair of optical connectors similar to those of U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,849 described above. A transceiver adapter is provided to receive a plug and to align the plug relative to the transmitter and/or receiver device. As shown in FIG. 1, the adapter contains many parts including, a shroud, an alignment adapter, pins, and a yoke. Again, a problem exists in that this adapter provides rough alignment to a pair of relatively large single fiber connectors at the optical interface. Also, it is undesirable to have multiple parts for achieving a precise alignment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,140,663 also shows an alignment device for an optical transceiver. This device also includes a latching beam mechanism having plug stops for the optical connector. Similar to U.S. Pat. No. 5,091,991, this patent teaches a multiple part alignment device having an adapter, a shroud, pins, and a latching mechanism for establishing alignment and for securing a plug to the transceiver device. This design would present similar problems as described above if utilized with a relatively small array optical interface.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an optical interface for an optical electronic component which provides precision alignment to an array of optical signal lines while minimizing the number of parts to perform the alignment.
This and other objects are achieved by providing an optical component having an optical array interface wherein an optical connector portion is integrally molded into the optical component and adapted to have a plurality of light guides disposed in a single ferrule.